Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Going Car-Free

From Asphalt Nation....

"As we enter the twenty-first century, it is clear that we are not only a car-driven but a car-ridden population. The vehicle that was out rescuer is arguably our ruination, certifiably, the root of many of our ills. Yet for all our automotive follies--for all the costs, the inconveniences, the destruction--the motor vehicle remains entrenched. The reason is obvious: it is a prerequisite for mobility in America. We cannot see our personal and global dilemma or perceive an escape from it. Our lives and landscape have been fashioned to the automobile's dictates for three-quarters of a century. A rescue movement is in order."
p285

"From the fight to "just say no" to highways, to the battle to create codes to release us from bondage of bad land practices, to traffic calming and the depaving of the kingdom of the car, to the proper pricing of our mobility and the political fight to install mass transit, the struggle engages a new constituency. The process is as participatory as democracy itself. The smallest householder and the largest corporation, the humblest local government maneuver and the grandest federal program must figure in the sea change for a new century."p287


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